Legislators Discuss Safety Measures for Schools

Legislators discussed a range of ways to improve school safety Wednesday, while learning about the near impossibility of predicting another Newtown tragedy.

S. David Bernstein, a clinical forensic psychologist from Norwalk, told legislators a school attack by an outsider, as was the case at Sandy Hook Elementary School, is unusual, "a black swan event" that is "low frequency, high impact."

To that end, legislators on the school security subcommittee of the Bipartisan Task Force on Gun Violence Prevention & Children's Safety discussed a range of ways to make schools safer. Suggestions included money for improvements, including solid-core classroom doors with ballistic-grade glass, school teams that could conduct threats assessments and a requirement that districts report on successful safety drill training.

Bernstein also told legislators that 95 percent of school shooters attend the schools they attack and said that 80 percent of the time, at least one person knew about the shooter's plan. Often too, he said, various people in a school community are aware that a student has troubling behaviors but if the school does not have a centralized way to collect such concerns, a student's problems may be missed.

About 75 percent of school shooters have been bullied, Bernstein said, and are often "injustice collectors" who feel they have been wronged and ruminate on it. The other two major risk factors, he said, are depression with thoughts of suicide and access to weapons.

If a student shows any "red flag behaviors," Bernstein said, the student should be screened. He suggested that schools have a "threat assessment team" to determine if a student poses a serious threat. He added that "zero tolerance policies" — those that mandate certain punishments for certain behaviors, regardless of circumstances — are not helpful because they discourage members of the school community from raising concerns if they see troubling behaviors.

Another expert, Scott Corzine, senior vice president with Risk Solutions International LLC, of New York City, recommended that legislators develop and fund a legislative mandate for comprehensive emergency management in schools to prepare and respond to all threats and risks.

"Avoid the temptation to overly focus on preventing school shootings," Corzine said. "It is financially impractical for Connecticut to try to make its schools physically impregnable, and all its citizens models of sanity." He recommended reviewing the "model" emergency plans in Nevada and Delaware.

Rep. Andrew Fleischmann, D-West Hartford, co-chairman of the school security working group, said that a statewide emergency plan is a good idea, but that it may take a few years. He suggested a "two-step approach" moving forward with safety plans in the short term, while also pursuing a long term plan.

Sen. Mike McLachlan, R-Danbury, said he sees no reason to "reinvent the wheel" and suggested the state consider adopting the Nevada plan.

Legislators also disucssed re-establishing a school safety capital program that was in place in 2007, but was cut when the state budget became tight.

Several legislators said decisions on costly improvements should be left up to local districts. "Anything that requires operating funds, we should not even have as a recommendation," said Rep. Roberta Willis, D-Salisbury. "Getting schools wedded to anything that we are not going to continue to fund in the future is a road I'm not willing to go down."

Sen. Dante Bartolomeo, D-Meriden said, "one size does not fit all." She said districts "are feeling squeezed at this point in time."

The committee plans to meet again before finalizing recommendations to the full Bipartisan Task Force.